IBM could learn a lot about marketing from Harold Camping

Whether his prediction comes true is irrelevant. Harold Camping has done a phenomenal job of marketing the Rapture. For the price of a few minutes worth of Superbowl commercials, he has created a very successful marketing campaign that has drawn the attention of much of the 1st world. What’s more, when it doesn’t happen, HE WILL GAIN EVEN MORE FOLLOWERS!!! Mark my words, this will happen.

So if one man could sell his idea so successfully to the world, why can’t IBM, owner of THE THIRD MOST VALUABLE BRAND, sell Lotus software? Perhaps brand recognition does not equate to sales as much as they would like to think? IBM spends huge sums of money on brand recognition. But in all of their advertising, have you ever seen a PRODUCT? Brand recognition has become the sole objective of their marketing strategy. NOT sales.
Here is a word association challenge. For each of these top 10 brands, (taken from the WPP report) what is the first thing you think of?

Every single one of these brands equates to specific products except IBM. IBM is the only company in this list to have no tangible product or service to identify with unless that would be “mainframe computers” which any IBMer will wince at. Can you find any other business that relies exclusively on brand recognition to sell without actually associating it with a product? IBM is totally focused on brand recognition and is ignoring the rest of the content in the complete report. It takes much more than brand recognition to sell something. Re-branding Lotus software as IBM software may seem smart, but it’s the same thing as killing Lotus. At least the Lotus brand had a product associated with it. The PRODUCT had an identity. As IBM software it will become obfuscated in the amorphous, intangible blob that is IBM. In a manner of speaking, the Rapture has come for Lotus software.